The ink had barely dried on the state’s revised execution policy yesterday when a question arose: What pharmacy will fill a prescription intended to kill the patient?
The revised execution policy, released by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, continues to rely on pentobarbital, which is in short supply from manufacturers, as the primary chemical used in lethal injections.
A significant change, however, will allow the state to buy drugs for executions from compounding pharmacies, which mix drugs specifically for a patient or client.
That’s where the state could run into trouble, said Ernest Boyd, executive director of the Ohio Pharmacists Association.
“The question is, what pharmacist will be willing to fill a prescription meant to kill a patient?” Boyd said. “That would be something a pharmacist would have to wrestle with before they cross that line.”
Boyd said pharmacists, like doctors, have a code of ethics in which they pledge to do no harm to patients.
Source: The Columbus Dispatch, October 5, 2013
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